Though those, that are betray'd.

Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.

To persevere

31-iii. 4.

In obstinate condolement,* is a course

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief:

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;

A heart unfortified, or mind impatient;

An understanding simple and unschool'd. 36-i. 2.

Blessed be those,

How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills,

Which seasons comfort.

As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use

31-i. 7.

Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue
(Like rats that ravin|| down their proper bane)

A thirsty evil, and when we drink, we die.

17

Elevation, exposed to censure.

5-i. 3.

O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
Are stuck upon thee! volumes of report
Run with these false and most contrarious quests
Upon thy doings! thousand 'scapes** of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dream,
And rack thee in their fancies!

18

5-iv. 1.

Human actions viewed by Heaven.
If pow'rs divine

Behold our human actions, (as they do,)
I doubt not then, but innocence shall make
False accusation blush, and tyranny

Tremble at patience.

That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time,
And drawing days out, that men stand upon.

20

The value of Virtue.

29-iii. 1.

The honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy

11-iii. 5.

is so rich as honesty.

21

Desertion.

The service of the foot

Being once gangrened, is not then respected

For what before it was.

Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

Live register'd upon our brazen tombs,

And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,

28-iii. 1.

Th' endeavour of this present breath may buy

That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,

And make us heirs of all eternity.*

23

8-i. 1.

Honours not hereditary.

Honours best thrive,

When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers: the mere word's a slave,
Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave,
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb,
Where dust, and damn'd oblivion, is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed.

24

11-ii. 3.

Confidence, not to be placed in man.

O momentary grace of mortal men,

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God !

Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,

Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast;

Ready, with every nod, to tumble down

Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

24-iii. 4.

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent*
The time of life :-(arming myself with patience)

To stay the providence of some high powers,
That govern us below.

29-v. 1.

There is so great a fever on goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it: novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce truth enough alive, to make societies secure; but security enough to make fellowships accursed: much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. 5-iii. 2.

27

Miracles and means.

Miracles are ceased;

And therefore we must needs admit the means,

How things are perfected.

28

The apprehension of evils.

Doubting things go ill, often hurts more
Than to be sure they do: For certainties

20-i. 1.

Either are past remedies: or, timely knowing,

The remedy then born.

29

Sincerity.

I hold it cowardice

31-i. 7.

To rest mistrustful, where a noble heart
Hath pawn'd an open hand in sign of love.

23-iv. 2.

Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.
Princes have but their titles for their glories,
An outward honour for an inward toil;

And, for unfelt imaginations,

They often feel a world of restless cares:
So that, between their titles, and low name,
There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

Nor are those empty-hearted, whose low sound
Reverbs no hollowness.

34-i. 1.

He, that is proud, eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. 26-ii. 3.

Labouring art can never ransom nature
From her unaidable estate.

-Nature is made better by no mean,
But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art,
Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art,
That nature makes. You see, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock;
And make conceive a bark of baser kind
By bud of nobler race: This is an art
Which does mend nature, change it rather: but

The art itself is nature.

11-ii. 1. & 13-iv. 3.

The greatest are misthought

For things that others do; and, when we fall,

We answer others' meritst in our name.

30-v. 2.

That we were all, as some would seem to be,

Free from our faults, as faults from seeming free!

36

Custom, supreme in its power.

5-iii. 2.

What custom wills, in all things should we do't,

The dust on antique time would lie unswept,

And mountainous error be too highly heap'd

For truth to over-peer.‡

28-ii. 3.

When we in our viciousness grow hard, (O misery on't!) the wise gods seel our eyes;

In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us Adore our errors; laugh at us, while we strut

To our confusion.*

30-iii. 11.

Fearful commenting

Is leaden servitort to dull delay;

Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.

39

Virtue contrasted with Vice.

24-iv. 3.

What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted ?†
Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

40 The wretchedness of human dependence.

O how wretched

22-iii. 2.

Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favours !
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;

And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,

Never to hope again.

41

Prayers denied, often profitable.

We, ignorant of ourselves,

25-iii. 2.

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers

Deny us for our good; so find we profit,

By losing of our prayers.||

30-ii. 1.

Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, ex

cessive grief the enemy to the living.

43

Recreation, a preventive of Melancholy.

Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue,
But moody and dull Melancholy,
(Kinsman to grim and comfortless Despair ;)
And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop

Of pale distemperature, and foes to life?

11-i. 1.